IVR Research

Belgians like speaking to an automatic telephone operator
The Belgian caller supports the idea of telephonic customer services where part of the questions is treated by automated systems. This became clear following a survey by MÖBIUS, in the course of which hundreds of callers were asked their opinion about such an automatic telephone operator. Especially Flemish callers appreciate the speed with which they are served in this manner. These are the results from a representative study that MÖBIUS carried out with callers to, among others, Belgacom, Telenet, Proximus, Mobistar, Fortis, Happy Days and the Vlaamse Infolijn. The researchers questioned a total of 2533 callers who had been in contact with an automated system less than 24 hours before. The results have a margin of error of 1.9 percent.

Automation in customer services

In the striving towards lower costs at their customer services, large organisations such as banks or telecommunication companies increasingly deploy IVR (interactive voice response). These are applications where the customer goes through a menu by using the buttons of his telephone before reaching a customer service agent. More often than not, customer service agents are no longer involved and the transaction is completed entirely automatically.

The results

85% of the respondents are satisfied with regard to the IVR they had contact with shortly before (4% very satisfied, 44% satisfied, 37% rather satisfied). Only 15% of the callers are dissatisfied with regard to the IVR (8% rather dissatisfied, 5% dissatisfied, 2% very dissatisfied). Over 90% of the respondents consider IVR to be easy, efficient, user-friendly and state that the IVR in question comes across as reliable (even if, for 40% of the respondents, this was the first time they had been in contact with this IVR).
Over 80% of the respondents state that IVR helps them to easily find the desired information or desired person, considers IVR to increase contactability, does not consider IVR to be irritating and was not surprised by the IVR. The same percentage thought having made few incorrect choices.
As expected, the satisfaction slightly decreases as the respondent’s age increases. Francophone callers are significantly less satisfied than the Dutch-speakers.
An important explanation for the satisfaction with regard to IVR is present in the fact that 56% of the callers prefer to be helped swiftly rather than personally but more slowly (31% prefers personally above swiftly and 13% has no preference).
However, the research clearly shows that the IVRs that have been correctly parameterised (number of successive choices the callers has to make, number of possible terminuses the caller can end up at, frequency of adaptation of the system, automatic identification of the caller present or not,…) score significantly higher than the other systems.

Conclusion

The Belgian callers consider a partly automated customer service to be an efficient way of getting answers to their questions. The advantage of gaining speed evens out the disadvantage of the impersonal approach, provided that the system is configured appropriately.

Research Technique

The interview focused on the recent contact the respondent had with the research partner. To avoid blurring of the experience, the interview took place within 24 hours after that contact. The researched sample was a representative selection of the Belgian population. We made the division between satisfaction with regard to the telephone conversation, satisfaction with regard to the company and satisfaction with regard to the IVR, and mapped the reason for the call. This way, the customer was able to provide his balanced opinion: " I am generally satisfied with the telecommunication company of which I have been a customer for years now, but, at this moment I am dissatisfied because today I am experiencing Internet access failures, I have been helped by a helpdesk agent in an impolite manner, but obtained a perfectly intrinsic answer. I was of the opinion that the IVR guided me to the correct agent quite quickly."

The study was not sponsored, but was financed by means of contributions from the various research partners.

Future studies

In this study, MÖBIUS examined the Belgian’s opinion with regard to automated telephone systems. The follow-up study (published in April 2006) shows what the parameters are that determine the satisfaction of individuals speaking to live agents. The research partners for that study are, among others, Fortis, Dexia, Happy Days, Partena, Euromut, Scarlet, Sony and Banksys.